Thieves run off with the prizes

Congratulations to each and every one of the entries below. All are winners and every one has met the brief. Every submission is a brilliant flash fiction story featuring a thief as its main character. Each one is original, sparkling with wit, and a super fun and funny read...

This challenge has now closed. Thanks to all for your support. Winners are announced and showcased here:

Winners of the Golden Tea Leaf

...The first five entries have each earned a luxurious $1 tip for rapid response to the call for new thieves. But the competition is still open and the big prize is still to be stolen.

Where have all the tea leaves gone? big prize challenge

New entries are being added below every day so please come back tomorrow to read some fantastic flash. None of the entries take more than a minute or two to read and you are guaranteed to be giggling, chuckling, or out and out belly laughing if you dip your sticky fingers into this box of jewels.

To enter this tea leaf (thief) challenge just click here

There is still the main prize to play for. The challenge remains open, with the first prize yet to be won. Once all entries have been received and the challenged closed, a distinguished panel of judges will be asked to award the prize to the best entry, and will no doubt refuse, leaving yours truly, Ray Taylor, to make a decision. To find out who the winner is, drop by sometime after the September 8 deadline. All details are to be found by following this link:

Enter the tea leaf (thief) challenge: click here

ENTRIES TO DATE

First entry is from Sarah Parker

I hadn't told her I'd stolen her manuscript and planned to claim it as my own. She'd left it right there, on her desk for all to see, and it was just too good to pass up.

She doesn't know I've read it or that I have it here in my hands. She's doing much better than I am financially, let's say, and that means one thing: I've got to kill her. That's the only way I can successfully adopt her work as my own.

Continue reading Her Manuscript

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Second entry from Matthew Fromm

These streets never knew what hit them…they should have paid more attention in history class.

It’s a truth we all share down here amongst the dregs–what is taketh can be taketh again just as easy.

Them up there in their ivory towers never learned that lesson. Easy enough to sit there every afternoon and sip and sip and sip and laugh and laugh and laugh.

Continue: From The Desk of the BBC: The Tea Bandit Strikes Again

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Entry number three is from Rachel Deeming

"I dare you," Chris whispered.

No going back now.

Rory inched his way across the garden like a ninja on a lava field wearing slippers, such was his stealth, agility and quietness.

His quarry lay, snoring in the sun. The prize, a flip-flop, hanging half off the foot of the unsuspecting snoozer.

Continue reading The Flip-Flop Heist

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May entry the fourth be with you, courtesy of Paul Stewart

There are not many things more satisfying than sitting down to read a good book. With interesting characters, we love and loathe, conflicts and resolutions, twists and turns. From the start we are engrossed through the middle to the end. The end that brings everything to a nice, or not so nice conclusion.

There are not many thing more frustrating than sitting down to read a good book, only to find that the last few pages or even chapter is missing. I know this only too well because that has become my life's work, my vocation. To leave questions unanswered, plots untwisted.

Continue reading The Real Book Thief

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Fifth and final winner of the coveted $1 tip early bird prize is Gael MacLean

Zorp the Zargonian had a peculiar hobby: collecting Earth's most notorious criminals. With a mischievous grin, she activated his ship's tractor beam. Plucking those villains mid-heist.

"What the…" exclaimed a startled bank robber as he materialized aboard.

Zorp zipped across galaxies. Her ship bulging with bewildered baddies. She touched down on Rehab-7, a lush world of reform.

"Welcome to your new home!" Zorp announced. "Here, you'll learn to channel your criminal energy into... competitive gardening!"

Continue reading The Cosmic Gardener

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Each of the above five stories has earned its author the princely sum of $1 for being first to fulfil the brief of writing a fun-packed, quick flash fiction featuring a thief as its main character. Their stories have introduced this new character through the medium of telling a tall tale.

Well done to all five entrants so far, for joining in the fun, producing a fantastic super-short story in the first few days of this week long contest and fulfilling every aspect of the brief.

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Our next mention must go to John Cox who didn't quite submit an entry with the following comment, but certainly it would meet the brief if he does decide to throw in his lot. Or perhaps, John, you have another iron in the fire. Please feel free to submit as many entries as you like. Here's what John had to say on the prompt: "Sounds like fun...

‘Tell us a story!’ Can’t, the cat stole my tongue!”

This certainly comment fulfils the brief to write a flash fiction story, introducing a new and original character who is a thief. A story must have a beginning, a middle and an end, right?

Beginning: Tell us a story

Middle: Can't... [begging the question, why not?] then, to answer:

End: The cat stole my tongue!

I won't say whether I think this story should win the award but it certainly deserves a worthy mention, not least because it demonstrates that you can write a complete, satisfying, funny story in just TEN WORDS.

It is also particularly amusing because, in saying that he cannot tell us a story, the narrator has indeed told us a story. A tall one at that which is evidently not true. It is a made up story which is, by definition, fictional.

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Our next entry comes from Mark Graham

Once upon a time there was a thief who liked to iron, but he could never find his own. He sculked around his neighborhood looking for steam irons till one day. He was walking around his neighborhood, and he noticed that a few houses down at the corner of Press and Fold that there was the scent of steam coming from one of the houses. He continued sniffing all the way, then at 513-Fold Street he found the correct house of steam.

Continue reading Who's a thief

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This tale from Kayleigh Fraser

It was freezing inside that church. Little Jane’s thin coat barely added any warmth to her tiny body. Her shoes had worn so thin that water seeped in when she stepped on the wet ground outside, soaking her wool tights and making her feet cold and wet. She couldn’t feel her toes.

Continue reading Morality

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From the keyboard of Jarrett Smith

Greed ran rampant. So many people strived to make it, not caring who they stepped over to get there.

Of course, that was nothing new. History is littered with the Haves using the have-nots. Sprinkled in were those like Lennon, Gandhi, Lupin, or Robin Hood, who tried to bring balance.

Robin saw the irony in his name. He wondered if his parents had planned this future. Had they known that growing up in destitution would create someone who wanted to act like Robin Hood? He doubted it.

Continue reading Robin

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From the inimitable Lamar Wiggins

"Honey! Look at this, it made the newspaper!" my eyebrows raised, flushed with surprise from the banner as my husband dragged himself into the kitchen with the worst case of bed head I'd ever seen.

It read: Local neighborhood is baffled by random flower theft.

Continue reading A Matter of Conscience

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Submitted on the final day of the challenge, by Tressa Rose

She wasn't the prettiest of girls, in fact she was pretty plain. Dark brown hair, just below her shoulders, average height, and most other girls would tease her for being "underdeveloped".

She didn't mind not being popular, actually she preferred it, because she didn't feel like she fit in with any clique. So she stayed buried in her books, and continued to write her poems.

Continue reading It's the little things

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From Kendall Defoe

He was inside and I could see his nervous buddy tapping the steering wheel when I pointed at the meter and told him that if he got there about an hour later he would have been okay and I wouldn't have to take down his information, but he didn't even see me at all (did he?).

Continue reading Meter Maid

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And now, finally, last but by no means least, we have an aptly-named story by Canuck Scriber L.Lachapelle Author

It was the year 1900.

The storyteller, (ahem)...I mean, the Fortune Teller stared into the teacup with great concern. She swirled it this way, then that, tipped it a bit first to the right, then to the left, and lifted her head to stare at her client with a raised eyebrow at Miss Butter Tart in front of her. The young woman was all of 22 years old. Bright red curls piled on her head with a hairpiece, long skirt, gloves and fashionable bag. Her chaperone waited outside. Spoiled, indifferent, but not carefree. The word was not invented yet in the context of womanhood.

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These are all the entries (unless I have missed any, and do please let me know if I have. The challenge is now closed for entries and a winner will be announced soon.

Watch this space

For details of the winner and any honorable mentions

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Here are some of my short stories about thieves and thievery

The Inside Job

A bank executive stands to benefit from assisting a heist team to rob his bank. Will he get away with it?

A macabre profession

To me, the ‘eerie’ silence of the secluded sepulchre was a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of the wicked world outside. If I found what I was looking for it would certainly be worth my while.

A great train robber

He was the politest thief I ever met.

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Happy writing folks